A Feast of New Music

T he fashion today is that everythingmust Lu radical and new . They arenot the sauce Thing . "Radical"

means a return to roots, and "new" meanssomething that has never happenedbelure . By those definitions, most of theniusrr pedorrnud in Santa Fe last monthwas neither, some was one or the other,but a surprising amount was excellent .An event that was interesting but

neither radical iwr new was the perfor-mance by Bay area, avant-garde com-poser Lou Harrison and the Mills CollegeGdinelan Following in the footsteps ofHaydn, Pierne, De Fafla and Satie, Har,risen presented a puppet opera, RichardWhittington, utilizing a text by JohnMasebeld, the gamelan, and voices . Theflat shadow puppets, held up against asilken screen and lighted from behind,were traditional, but elsewhere Harrisoncross-cultured with a vengeance . The onlythings new were the gamelan instrumentswhich are now made in the U.S . They arealuminum which produces a lighter,brighter tone than the traditional in-struments of brass and iron . But crosscultural synthesis, no matter how con .sciously done, takes generations andmany practitioners before it jells, as hashappened in jazz The gamelan is no ex-ception .What disappointed this listener was that

the whole thing was so undeveloped . Har,risen is a gifted composer, but with somagnificent an instrument, as well as ade-quate voices, he seems to have merelysketched instead of creating a fully re-alized work .

Oriental arts are in no hurry, traditionalpuppet shows olten last from dusk todawn, and there is little connection bet-ween their concepts of action, tension andrelease, and ours Richard Whittington ismore narrated than acted, and tendedtoward what we, with our saturated sensesand television nurtured impatience,would call boring . Many of the patrons,who had laid out $8, walked out,

"Sounds are excellent (of themselves)"said grand old composer of the avant-garde, John Cage . So they proved duringTone Roads West, the marathon poetryand music festival put together by SantaFe composer Peter Garland, poet ArthurSze and indefatigable administratorSuzanne Jamison- This was the first timean event of this nature has taken place inSanta Fe, and it is to be hoped the fundingwill 6e forthcoming to make it an annualbash . Of the five concerts given over fourdays, three were exciting . Honors weredivided among Santa Fe composersJoseph Weber and Peter Garland, andBoston composer-violinist Malcolm Goldstein, making his first Southwestern ap-pearance .Weber is a lanky, Dame-haired and

bearded man in whom time and fortunehave created some flame-like opinionsand a certain bittersweet tension . Born inAntioch, California, he attended SanFrancisco State University, where histeacher was the composer Roger Nixon.His peers during the yeasty time of the'60s were such now recognized composersas Loran Rush, Steve Reich, and PaulineOliveros .The comparison will doubtless not

please him, but Weber'sperformanceof hisown compositions on piano and the St .Francis Auditorium organ inevitablyreminded me of the work of former SantaFe/Taos composer Tom Ehrlich- There isthe driving energy, the extended,marvelously arched line, the sonority .Weber gladly admits the influence ofDebussy on his work, and tire result ispure delight .Driving energy is also evident in razor-

thin, 30 year old Peter Garland, who maynot make 40 unless tie learns to pacehimself. He is certainly lull of passionateintensity, and his music is compelling .While his earlier piano/harp pieces arewonderfully Lyrical, his more recent work,particularly Matachin Dunces (played byMalcolm Goldstein and Lynn Case, with

Garland handling the gourd iatlles), isone of the few really successful uses of"ethnic" materials by an "Angle" com-poser .Energy as pure delight is again ap-

plicable to the dazzling work of MalcolmGoldslein who flinches at being called avirtuoso . There is no doubt that he couldhave had a more conventional career ; it isour good fortune that he chose to devotehimself to creating music rather titan play-ing the standard repertory ."Improvisation" is a loaded word, and

Goldslein was careful to explain, in awide-ranging discussion the day after his .concert, that freedom does not mean anar-chy . While the performer does havechoice about what sound he will play atany given moments, the parameters of thepiece are defined by the composer .

In this, Goldstein is literally radical butnot new, in that sense of returning to roots.Baroque music is exactly composed, butwith plenty of space for the creativity ofthe performer .

Goldstein's performance shone with anintensity and sonority that was totallysatisfying, whether in his ensemble com-positions, which included taped soundsand sometimes slide projections, or in themesmerizing Soundings, in which Gold-stein thoroughly explored the possibilitiesof the violin . One would not have beensurprised to see flames coming out of theinstruments, or his ears, or both!

Space limitations always dictate severechoices, and I have reserved little of it forthe "stars" of Tone Roads West, poet/com-poser Jackson MacLow,and poet CarolynForche . I felt it was more important todiscuss New Mexico-based artists .At 60, Jackson MacLow is still a search-

ing, questing man, and he won all heartswhen, during a discussion with MalcolmGoldstein, lie reminded us : "Whatsoeverthy hand findeth to do, do i1 with theymight," If there are any rules to art, this isa cardinal one, apd MacLow knows thisto the marrow of his bones. The results,however, were equivocal. MacLow isnoted for his explorations of verbal soundsdivorced from conventional meaning. Thisis fascinating to the person who is doing it,but not usually transferable .

Carolyn Forche is a thoughtful andforceful person, as indicated by the talkshe gave on El Salvador and in a smallerdiscussion on the same somber topic. I did

not hear her read because I was simply tooexhausted. Mea culpa 1There is also little space to talk about

the pride of poets from New Mexico whoread . The most forectul was Joy Harjo"hocombined rhythmic vitality with non-cliche imagery. The gods be thanked, shedid not read (as so many dot in one ofthose wispy, apologetic, high little girlvoices that reminds one of Jackie Ken-nedy .The final event of the Festival was a per-

formance by Charles Amirkhanian ofBerkeley of a work utilizing tape, "music,"taxi-sound, and projections by Carol Law .This reminded me of the chic/hipunderground movies 1 used to see at theold Italian Hall in North Beach in the'50s.Not a cliche was missed . The moneywould have been much better spent tobring Pauline Oliveros or Kay Gardner tothe Festival . While the organizers werecareful to include a female poet al everyreading, it still apparently did not occurto anybody that women write music.Tone Roods West was preceded by the

world premiere al C.G . Rein Gallery ofWoody Vasulka"s video "opera" The Com-mission-The

plot is operatic indeed-. the 19thcentury composer Hector Berlioz wasostensibly commissioned to compose awork for the notorious violinist NiccoloPaganini who was very widely believed tobe the devil . The commission turned out tohe a fraud. Even more bizarre was theodyssey of Paganini's corpse, with whichThe Commission is largely concerned.

It music is "organized sound", asEdgard Varese averred, then The Com-missions is a musical work . But it was moreelectronically manipulated chant and nar-rative As with most endeavors in this[field, because it was done by a person notprincipally a composer, it was peculiarlytruncated and undeveloped; splendid op-portunities to play with sound were al-lowed to slide by .However, video is not basically sound

but image. In The Commission, montage,crosscut, wipe, fade and computermanipulation of image were used to thehilt . The imagery was sometimes riveting,but just as often exhausting No matterhow accustomed one is to television com-mercials, scores and scores of imagesflashed rapidly upon the retina isoverload Joanne Forman

8-2 PRIME TIMES, March 3 1983 .

POETRY AND MUSIC:

Four days and nights of new music performanceand poetry . Presenting two nationally acclaimed poets,and also draws on some of New Mexico's best poets Alltogether in Santa Fe, from march 17 thru 20th, 1983,

TONE ROADS WEST, brings together leaders inthe fields of sound/text composition, experimental poe-try and new music composition and performance. Bring-ing this many brilliant minds lQuone stage will certainlyset the creative sparks flying . TONE ROADS WESToffers the audience a rare opportunity to be present atthe creation, to experience the dynamics of interactionbetween some of America's exceptional artist, writersand composers.

Undoubtedly one of the main attraction . is thereadi ng of poetry and the speking of Carolyn Forcheon human rights in El Salvador .

Carolyn Forche's firts book of poems, Gatheringthe Tribes, won the Yale Series of Younger PoetsAward in 1976 . Subsequently, she received fellowships

from John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and theNational Endowment for the Arts . As a journalist andhuman rights advocate, she travelled extensively in ElSalvador between January, 1978 and March, 1980. Sheprovided documentation to international human rightsorganizations, including Amnesty International and theInternational Commision of Jurists . Her second book ofpoems, The Country Between Us, was the Lamont Se-lection of the Academy of American Poets for 1981 . lwas published by Harper & Row, with a special editiqby Copper Canybn Press.

Also featuring, a special opening night benefitpremiere of the video-opera "The Commission" byWoody Vasulka, About a commission Hector Berlio ;received to compose a work for Paganini, and withter turned out to be fraudulent- In living color, onlarge screen, featuring composer Robert Ashly, vidftist Ernest Gusella, Cosimo Corsana, Ben Harris andrea Harris, with sets by sculptor Bradford Smith!Camera work by Steina Vasulka,

Internationaly-acclaimed video artist Woodyka, was born in Czechoslovakia, and now lives I~Fewith his wife and cowork

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Council far the Art's `Vane Roads West'

Program Offers SomeBy DAVID L. BELLJournal Correspondent

one Roads West," last week's four-daysymposium of poetry and new musicsponsored by the Santa Fe Council forthe Arts, was sufficiently serious to

deserve serious attention.

The series was informed by an energetic andconstructive emphasis on human interaction and onart as process rather than product .

There were high points of performance in video,music and poetry reading . And there was a pervasive,well-intentioned ideology about the affair that ex-tended through art into politics to create a sense ofinvolvement and commitment on the part of artistsand audiences alike .

On the other side, there was the hermeticism thatso often accompanies the avant-garde. More thanonce, labored poetic and musical passages seemed toconvey nothing so much as a reinvention of the wheel .

And the shadow of political "a priori-ism" occa-sionally appeared to have had a stifling effect on thecreative impulse, which functions most productivelywhen the outcome is least predetermined .

"The Commission," a video "opera" by WoodyVasulka that opened the series, had its own plusesand minuses . Based on a historical episode involvingthe famous 19th century composer Hector Berliozand violinist Niccolo Paganini, it sometimes followedand sometimes strayed from its story line .

The "plot" involved a prestigious but fraudulentcommission offered to Berlioz for a composition . Theoffer was ostensibly made by Paganini but in fact byBerlioz's publisher as a publicity stunt . Such avehicle might lend itself to the intense and romanticexamination of human character that characterizesmuch traditional opera .

But the overall philosophical effect was more akinto the nihilism of punk art.

That is not to say that emotion was omitted . Rather,

JOURNAL NORTH Wednesday, March 23, 1983 D-5

Powerful Moments

it was invariably qualified so that enigma oversha-dowed affirmation or resolution. Yet there werevignettes of great power, some of them involvingPaganini and his son, played respectively by ErnestGusella and Ben Harris .

Visually, the high points of "The Commission" layin Da Vinci-esque figure compositions on a grid, andin the electronic pointillism of landscape settings .

It may be that the apparent emotional hedging ofthe work had to do with the "experimental" nature ofits structure . There seems to lurk behind theprofessed experimentalism and deliberate rawnessof the video format a highly sophisticated visualaggressiveness nutured by exposure to commericaltelevision.

If "Tone Roads" video was tough as art, its musicwas no less so. Peter Garland, composer and musiccoordinator of the event, noted in the program, .'"ToneRoads (West or East) ; They may be a bit rough orrocky, but it is where they take you that counts . Andon the most interesting ideas, one may just have tothrow away the maps-"

French composer Claude Debussy neverthelessserved as mapmaker or guide to one of the series'

most effective musical composers and performers,Joseph Weber, whose untitled work for piano ex-pressed a humble and honest, but not derivative,emulation.Weber's "Labyrinth,' also for piano, had the power

of understated progression, while a longer piece fororgan, "Fantasies, Organ&, Dances & Hymns."seemed never to get anywhere- in the manner of awarm-up exercise. Once again, one sensed a holdingback, a reluctance to take the leap and offer theresolution . .Of the poetry readings featured by "Tone Roads,"

it needs to be said that the power words may havewhen savored in solitude, or shared in the intimacy ofa coffee house, bar or bookshop, is considerablydiminished by presentation in an auditorium topersons seated on wooden benches.

One poet introduced a work with the comment thatit would take 10 minutes to read, and it seemed to take20. Liveliness of pace is essential to public perfor-mance, and only poets who read well should do sopublicly.

Nor can paucity of vocabulary or image beconcealed by an expressive voice. Content and

d~liveryalike must be strong for a successful

r ading.

All criteria were more than met by Carolyn Forche,whose work was introduced with the apt observationthat it shows "no seam between the personal and thepolitical," In her Fl Salvador poems - "San Onofre,California" and "To Victoria Champagne" - Ms.Forche demonstrated the unifying and healing powerof a view of the human condition that contains equalparts of compassion, protest and humor .

The closing performance of "Tone Roads West"was an intermedia work by Charles Amirkhanian andCarol Law . In its voice-on-voice passages, its "snorescore" and its evocative juxtapositions of pedestriansounds and images, it certainly had its moments -some of them just right and others overly prolonged .By its title, "Hypothetical Moments," it seemed tosum up the events of the four days that hadpreceeded it.

REPORTING THE ARTS11,

`New Music'By JACK Kt7LKMEYER

The 19Ws may well be known One day asThe Age of Categories or The Era of Isma . Itseems of paramount importance now thateverything be labeled, booed, stereotyped orcategorically put in its own special niche.And nowhere, perhaps, is thin 'cstegonicsiimperative" more vigorous than in the fieldof muse. Just look at the genres : classical .pop. R&B, rock 'n' roll . Punk, country-Western, heavy metal. techno-pop, proto-,junk . new wave . easy listening, salsa, reg-gae, funk. Motown and jazz, to name a fewbut barely scratch the surface .This subject, the classification of musical

genres, came up last weekend in regards tothat strange beast known as New Music.Tone Roads West, a four-day marathoncelebration of poetry and Now Music spon-sored by the Santa Fe Council far the Arts .orought together some of the biggest na-tional names in New Musk-Malcolm Gold-stein, Charles kinirkhanian and Caroi Law-and some of Santa Fee most prominentYew Musicians-Peter Garland" JosephWeber, Jack Loeffler, Jack Briece awl lackFishman- At the same time, a New Musicianof a different stripe. Charlie Sexton, playedwith his group The Eager Beaver Boys atClub West. The happy coincidence of thesetwoevents provides an Opportunity to tackleonce again that perpetual questiow What isview Music?For some reason . the term New Music is

coming more and more into vogue- Genexsi-ly, it is used to refer to music of the avant'garde. vkatever that is. Scholars conac1O-ly creating new musical modes. and ethno-musicologists discovering esoteric mu"forms in the world's backwaters, have bothbeen called New Musicians. How can thesediverseactivities be encompassed by asingleterm. New Music? ('though to take the termat its literal meaning, any musk new to ourears-be it punk rock . new wave or reggae-should be considered New Music but thatwould include, for instance, even Nigerian.iuju

- music, which is, in fact, very old)Therefore, just for the fun of it-sad torecognize these new music forms that havsanot hem dignified with the rubric New

Forcbe- The death of spathv

SemanticsMusic- I have come up with twosuhclaaaift-cations for New Music: Popular New Musicand Classical New Music.Popular New Music is 9XIal; it is music

forwork, play and dancing. Although it canbe cornplex. it is not intrine-IIY intell-tual. It is halo= in origin, the music of thecommon people . When this ethaie music inbrought to the attention of another culture,it becomes New Music. feast ex1mpl- ofsuch New Music would be the NUM ice.rock 'n' mil, asks" reggae, rtimbs, tango.sukisa and high life-the list is infinite .) Acurrent example of this fusion is the newwave group Bow Wow Wow. which makesuse of Burundi drumming styles and-them with rock 'n' roll. In addition, these"borrowed" musical forms can undergo fur-ther evolution in their newly found land.An electrifying example of the vitality of-

Popular New Musiccould be seen Lest w9ek-end at Club West, with the appearance ofyoung guitarist Charlie SextonAt 14, Sexton hoe already mastered many

popular rock guitar eglm . and he is destin-ed to become a true innovator in the worldof Popular New Music. His mfluedxs ereclear, and be speaks of them with unda:-standing. They include Cad PerkingJohnny Buraette. Hound Dog Taylor andBoDidd*, among others. (fhew are some ofthe same Composers and perfoommee whomsounds helped assts the music of Elvis.Preslay, the Besdesand theRoilingStones.)Sexton is "vntg rock 'n' roll in a freshway, though be gull pay's homage to ih oldprinciples.And this is the same dynamic atwork in

Classical New Music: Take the old tooin, ar-strumente and ideas and Curd- somethingnewtodo wit3ttheta. Classical Now Musicisbased on an established set of artistic stan-d&rds and ttsdrtimn-one of thun banthat music is art. something to, 1-min to andconcentrate on, often too, Claswical NewMusic is associated with an institution or amovement, be it a school of music or a schadof thought. And Classical New fkhupc,regardiess. of its content or presentation,almost always uses 'dsssiral' i stxnmenh-thispiano, the violin, thesitar, the k- Orthe koto. These fundamental principles Of

Ey STl&PHSN LANG

Beginning-at the least-with the Viet-rwm years, political-activiet poets have tend-ed to be more activist than poetic . Recount-ing grisly detail& of multitudes of atroitias,thane poets lost much of theireffect throughseeming to be hyperbolic, or, to bastardizeYears badly, too much of theirsorrow madeastone of ourhearts . However. Caroiyn For-che. who spent two years in El Salvador andescaped four attempts on her life by Salve-doren security forces. likewise -pee theatrocity litany, the trap of the political-activist poetThe Santa Fe Council for the Arts' presen-

tation, Tone Roads West, brought Forche totown for two days . Within a span of littlemore than 24 hours, Forche made four ap-pearance : a lecture on El Salvador; a poetryworkshop for women inmates at the statepenitentiary: a lecture on exiled Salvadoranpoet Claribel Alegria; and a reading fromher award-winning second book of poetry,'The Country Between US .'To be sure, Forche spoke of her share of

horrors, as she had been instructed by herfriend Josephine in a poem called "ldetum :"' . . Go try on I Americans your long, dullstory + of corruption, but better to give +them what they want: Lil Milagro Ramirez. I

Amudchsaiaa in fmot of a Card Law Wage :

Classical New Music were pram inertly .displayed at Tone Roads West last weekend-Malcolm Goidstain's performance of

`Soundings for Solo Violin- last Saturday inthe St. Francis Auditorium was both as ex-ercise on e[pandiag violin technique and astudy is violin tonality- What Goldsteinreally presented was an idea about thenature of the instrument and he did thiswith a great deal of andusiama and clarity.

Goldstein hasworked mostly in Now Yorkduring the pest 2U years . . and his musicPOSOSWM adistinct urban intensity. It flowsrapidly along chsnsieal violin traditions-iristh at one moment, Bulgarian at another.The solo piece began with long, sustained

,lots@ that were at race pleasant and stri-dent. The middle section focused on the

who after years of confinement did not Iknow whet year it was, how she walked Iwith help and was forced mshit in public.)Tell them aboutthe razor, the live woe. I dryice and concrete, grey rata and above all Iwho fucked her, howmany timesand when."Forche not only re-creates the experience,

she creates a context" most often the un-flinching memory of the victims or thewitnesses.Her lecture on F.l Salvador Friday night

focused most closely on herparticular area ofexpertise-the Salvadoran security forces.Pulling no punches in her denunciation ofthe leaders. she spoke in a carefully enunci-ated projected whisper whose nearly poeticcadence was filled with urgency. Listenersleft St Frances Auditorium stunned: not bythe atrocities . but by the manner in whichtheir own lethargy-and uitimateiy theircomplicity-had been stirred .Saturday morning at the penitentiary .

Forche again spokeof the passivity that hasbecome part of the American character. "Ihave a sense that, on the whole, Americansare very moral people who want to do theright thing . But they feel powerless, theyfeel totsllv removed from the decisionmaking process in Washington ."When I first went to Salvador, I felt that

way. too . But the people told me I was

A trihrte to the potential of 'New Mtwit'

more enCirgetic andrepetitive pomibilitu softhe violin. This diffused intoa reverberatingandmelodic conclusion. What Goikiettan was

in the proom of doing was dfamvertag the .other sounds a violin can make, creating anew role for a damcal mabrumentone of his other prwsentodone. The

9ewsooc Vermont." was left sucoswul.Perhaps because it came across so severely.Or perhaps because the taped sounds. thataccompanied it were too bood-°rhe Seasons: Vermont' was performed

by Goldstein on violin ; Jack Loeffler ontrumpet, recorder and steel drums: JackFishman on flutes; Peter Garland playing

ivibes. drums and goW. and Jack gnaw onorgan. Though they seemed to play well

(Continued on Page 241

(continued on Page 241

ThePoetics ofPoliticalCommitment

wrong. It is only because we believe that wehave on power. that we actually don't haveany. The powers that make the decisionsthat we silently OPPOW. rely on thatlethargy and passivity," she remarked .Forebe urged the women at the peniteo-

uary to write . to express themselves--notOnly in poetry, but in stories or journals."You have a wealth of experience ." she toldthem, that might make people understandanother side of life."The 32-year-old Forche has been express-

ing herself in writing since she was 9. Theoldest daughter in "a tool-and-die family" inDetroit, she was essentially apolitical untilher trip to EL Salvador. And that only cameabout when, after translating Alegris'spoetry into English, she wait visited by thealder woman's nephew, who was an "oataf-hiemind revolutionary" and convinced herthat a poet could have Rome impact on theworld. "What I experienced there invadedmy poetry . Now f go to Central Americawhenever I think i canget away with it-" shesaid.Much of her time is this country is spent

lecturing wherever she is invited and lobby-ing in Washington against unconditional aidto the Salvadoran government . But she in-sists chat it is the poetry reading and not her

played proved to be rich.The four seasons have always been a

favorite classical theme, and certainly aneasily understood subject. Perhaps this pieceneeded to venture further into the experi .mental possibilities of the instruments beingplayed . Still, there was a great deal ofmusical restraint on the part of the musi-cians. Nevertheless, it was an interesting in-volvement of local musicians with aClassical New Music performer of nationalsignificance.On Sunday night, Charles Amirkhanian

and Carol Law closed the New Music portionof Tone Roads West, and it turned out to bea fitting tribute to the brilliant potential ofNew Music . Though they fracture almost allof the rules, there remains a refined, classi-cal undertone and motivation to their workTheir collaborative effort, "Hypothetical

Moments," was, without doubt, a tour deforce. Both visually and vocally this

Commitment(Continued from Page 21)

politicking that has the greatest impact forchange. "People who come to the lectures arealready interested in Salvador . But thosewho come for the poetry are often peoplewho know nothing about Salvador."Almost like a challenge, she added, "You'll

see it this evening: The poetry reaches peo-ple in a way that talking about my experi-ences can't ."That night she was introduced by local

poet Arthur Sze, who organized the poetryprogram of Tone Roads West . Casual andconfident, Forche read a few announce-ments before beginning in a startlingly con-trasting mode-after 24 hours of utter seri.ousness, she revealed a sparkling sense ofhumor.

Introducing the fast poem, "As ChildrenTogether," she recalled her well-endowed,French-Canadian adolescent friend, VickiChampagne (she promises that's her realname), a girl who dated servicemen because"she got blue airmail letters from them anddidn't have to do anything with them." (Likemost of Forche's work, this poem is concern-ed with memory;) Forche ends the poem byaddressing her French-Canadian girlfrienddirectly : "If you read this poem, write tome. / I have been to Paris sincewe parted ."Her audience firmly in tow, Forche thenG

l~

turned to the Salvadoran poems. Reading orspeaking from memory, she intoned her

from P

poems in the same slightly theatrical voice(Continued 21)

of the previous night's lecture. She seemedtogether,

many of the - group's ainalfer

to be letting each individual person in on asounds and tones could not be heard well.

very intimate secret.But when they could be, the music they

What she had said that afternoon wastrue: Her poetry was even more effectivethan the lecture. People didn't applaud-itwould be like applauding a prayer-nor didthey even turn to their companions tospeak.Instead, they accepted the relationship theyhad been drawn into between the poet andthe listener, as Forche made tangible forthem the pain of a war-torn country .Before bracketing her Salvadoran poem

with another upbeat one, she offered a chill-ing non-Salvadoran poem, "Ourselves orNothing." Speaking far herself and the au .dience, she described the plight of the in-dividual who chooses to become involved :"There is a cyclone fence between 1 ourselvesand the slaughter and behind it I we hover ina calm protected world like 1 netted fish, ex-actly like netted fish. I It is either the begin.ning or the end I of the world, and the choiceis ourselves I of nothing."Like Salvador to her, Forche's poetry had

invaded our lives .

U.S . Poet Speaks.On Life- in SalvadorB'Y MARIA HIGUERAJournal Staff Writer

SANTA FE - Carolyn Forcheleft El Salvador in 1990, afterescaping an ambush by threemachine gunnersandother threatsto her life.Her Salvadorean friends, among

them Archbishop Oscar Romero,urged her to leave the country tosave her life.Ms. Forche, 32, a poet and

journalist, bypassed El Salvador inJanuary during a trip to CentralAmerica.Says Ms. Forche, who now lives

in NewYork: "I'm not a guerrilla. Ican see that I'm most effective as awriter, as an artist, as someonewho can serve as a witness. Dead,I'm useless.-She arrived in Santa Fe on Friday

to take part in Tone Roads West, afestival of contemporary poetryand music that runs through Sun-day at St: Francis Auditorium .On Friday she lectured on El

Salvador. Today at 3p.m., she willdiscuss her translations ofSalvadorean poetry . She will readher own poems at 7 p.m.Much of Ms. Forche's work,

including a memoir in progress, isinspired by events in the tiny,war-torn country. She spent nearlytwo years there, from 1978 to 1980,developing what she calls "a fo-cused obsession."In January, she went to Mexico

City to comfort an exiled friendbecause her two teen-age daugh-ters had been picked up and tortturgid by government police, Ms.Forche said .The girls, 15 and 17, were rela-

tively lucky, Ms. Forche said . Theysurvived.Several of Ms. Forche's friends,

including Archbbsshop Romero,were less fortunate. The archi-bishop warned her about her safe-ty a week before he was killedsaying. mass .Of Romero, she said, "I knew I

was in the presence of a saint."Ms. Forche, an estranged Roman

Catholic, said, "The faith of Salva-doran Catholics restored me. I met

and knew those who have sincebecome martyrs."Military aid, such as the Reagan

administration's latest request for$110 million, can only prolong theviolence, she said . ."I don't think a military victory

is possible," she said. "'The cost inhuman lives would be unimagin-able."Since she can't realistically ex-

pect military aid to be cut offcompletely, she said negotiationsshould be a condition of any in-crease.Her recent lectures focus on

corruption in the Salvadoran milltary . '-"The institutionalized corruption

of the military should be of con-cern to Americans, because of themillions of dollars we funnelthrough it," she said.She can rattle off examples to

illustrate her point. For instance,she told of a colonel who wasarrested by plainclothes police-men in New York for trying to sellthem 10,000 machine guns. "Ileave it to people to figure out .where the machine guns came,from," she said.Ms. Forche's articles have-

appeared in The NadcA Ms., The:.Progressive . and The AmericanPoetry Review.Her first book of poems, Gather6-

ing the Tribes; wonthe Yale Youn-ger Series of Posts Award in 1975.She has since received fellowshipsfrom the Guggenheim Foundation

:.aand the National Endowment forthe Arts.

, fHer poems have appeared in the

The New York and AtlanticMonthly.A poet first, she said she became -

a journalist inEl Salvador: "What Iwas witnessing made me feel themoral obligation to report it. Ididn't think it could be done intmtry""She describes her upbringing in

Detroit as patriotic, Catholic andworking-class. Once she startedcollege, during the Vietnam War,her politics changed to becomewhat she calls, "morally basedpolitics."

Nop

NPM UFPOUTING THE ARTS ma

Composer Makalm Guldblela

Performance &nut Amirkhaman

Here in Santa Fe we've got festivals for

luminaries and load talents to "comeeverything : for opera, for chamber music,

together ."fortheater, for the visual arts, for film (both

Thelocal poets whoareamwering this callthe Hollywood and independent varietieay

are: Arthur Sw (who also is functioning asand dance. Any art form, it seems, as lung as

' the

festival's

poetry

coordinator),

Johnit's 'safe," eeceseible, reassuring, risk-free

Brandi, Mei-Mej &rsaenbrugge, Joy Haqu,and given the and of approval by highbrow

Fluyce Alexander, Jimmy Baca, Simon Or.culture vultures and academically trained

tir, Luei Tapabonso, Carol Callum, Haroldcritics, can find favor in Santa Fe .

1]ltlehird, Leo Romero and Nathaniel Tarn .The question that the Santa Fe Council for

The New Mexico new music scene will betheAria is now asking, however, is this: Can

represented by Garland (who is the musica four-day festival of avant-garde or pulili~

coordinator of the festival( end Josephrally inspired art-consisting mostly of new

Weber. The nationally acclaimed artistswhomusic, poetry and performance-find favor

responded to the call are the poets Jacksonin the same town that aupportsan opera and

MacLow and Carolyn Forche, oompeeera chamber music festival? Will the same

Malcolm Goldstein and performance artistspeople that flock to hear Stravinsky and

Charles Amirkhanan and Lard Law.Copland rush off to bear Jackson Macl.nw,

Forebe, a journalist and human rights ac-Maleotn Golcistein, Charles Amirkhani m,

tivist as well as a poet, has traveled exten-Cerol Law, Carolyn Forche and a pantheon

eivety in Et Salvador, translated the poetryof laid talents'?

of Salvadoran poet Claribel Alegria, andUnfortunately, the Council won't know

testified before Amnesty International andthe answer to this question until its festival,

the International Commission of Joriats OIL

Tone Roach West: Poetry and New

human rights violations in that troubledMusic, is over, sometime late Sunday right .

country . Her fimt book of poetry, "GatherUntil then it can only hope that Santa Veins

ing of the Tribes," won the Yale Series u¬are going to welcome the chance to see some

Younger Poets Award in 1978 . Her secondof the moot important, innovative new moan-

work, "1'qe Country Between Us,' dealingrims and poets in the country perform (n

with Fl Salvador, ranks as one of the mostgather in a Loosely structured way that em

discussed

"umes

of poetry

in

years.courages the exchange of ideas .

Writing in the February issue of'AmericanTone Road@ West, whose title comes from

Poetry Review, Sharon Doubiagu amid ofa particularly evocativeCharles Ives comps

'MeCountry Between Us":'This is a poetryaition,'Tone Roads," was the braluchild of

of terrible witness" In addition to herSuzanne Jamison, administrator of the Sam

poetry reading with Jackson Macl,ow onto Fe Council for the Arta and overall coon

Saturday al 7 p.m , Ruche will also deliversdinatur of the festival, which will run from

free public lecture od El Salvador on FridayThursday, March 17, to Sunday, March 20,

at 7 p.m .in the St, Francis Auditorium, '11te idea

MacLow, now 60, might be called thewas to provide a structure that would bring

grand old men of the eadyd0s avant-gardetogether exceptional, creative people and let

poetry scene. He is credited with giving im-them interact with each other,' Jumiem

petus to the Fluxua Movement in literaturesaid "Mon, watch the dynamics lake plucel"Santa Fe has lung been a center of new

music, thanks to the work d composer,musician and musicpublisher PeterGarlandand eomlinseis Joseph Weber, GardnerJencks, Tom Fhrlich sit] others, and it hasbeen home for tka is fur the past 50 yearsThe festival, then, is really a call for national

mwD2

Artfest forthe Avant-Garde

M

Amost recent works are 'RepresentativeWorks' and "From Pearl Harbor Day toFDR's Birthday ." MaPLow, who had per. 3formed with John Cage, will be seen thisweekend with composer Malcolm Goldsteinon Friday at 8:16 p.m . On Sunday, he and 4Goldstein will conduct a discussion, Poetryand New Music Collaboration, at 2 p.m .Goldstein is one of the foremost composer W

and violinists of the avant-garde today, Hehag been active, mostly in New York, sincethe early )50s and has pioneered new perfor-mance techniques and inspired new impro-visutional attitudes in music Besides appeering with hdscLow is concert Fridaynight and in discussion with him Sundayafternoon, Goldstein will premiere a newwork with an ensemble of Santa Fe must-clans called °The Seasons: VernwntliVinter,VermunuSpring" On Saturday at 9:30 P .M .

The team d Charles Amirkhanian an]Carol Law will round outthe fist of guest artilt& Amirkhanian, long time music direr .tar of radio station KPFA in Berkeley,Calif. . is the country's leading "textoeund"composer, a genre that combines theelements u,f music and poetry. Amrkhanianmixes verbal information with tape leaps,multitrack recording techniques and digitalmodulation to produce startling aural im-agen . His partner, low, works as a vieuni ar-tiet-indeed, ahes been called one of themoat unorthodox and exciting visual artist&in the Bay Area-and w involved in print-making, blueprinting and the use of colorcopiers. In her work with Amirkhanion, Lawwill create mohile images by manipulatingo'idea, projectors and a alido-dis"ve unit ofher own deaigm This duo will wind up thefour-day festival with a program called"Hypothetical Moments." which will be perfunned et 8:30 p.m . Sunday .

by publishing 'An Anthology" in 1983 . to

Aseries ticket for x1112 concerts, readingsthe late '60s he participated in the creation

and discussions costs $30. Single tickets,of computeraesiated poetry for the art and

which will only be available at the door, willtechnology program of the Us Angeles

range in price from $4 to $8, depending onCounty Musuem of Art. lfie innovative ex-

the nature of the event. The $30 seriesptriments with chance Language . soremirdw

ticket, however, will not cover the specialcent of the work of the dadaists of the '20a.

benefit premiere of video artist Woodyare exemplified in "22 Light Poems." He

Vasulka's video opera, "The Commission,"which will be shown at 7:30 pm at C.C .Rein Gallery . Tickets for this event are $8 .For tickets or more information aboutToneRode West, call the Santa Fe Council forthe Arts at 98&1878.

By ROBERTSTOREYTheNewMexican Staff

Opponents of a Reagan administrationplan to step up military aid to El Salvadorsay they may not be able to block the in-crease but hope Congress will reduce theamount and require negotiations withrebel groups ."We know there is a difference between

what people believe morally and whatthey can achieve politically," said human,rights activist and award winning poetCarolyn Forche on Friday evening.

"Personally I would like to see all aid tothe Salvadoran government stopped over-night, but that is politically impractical.What we'd like to see andwhat we think isachievable is a requirement on the aid bill

Poet-activist criticizes

Salvadoran rulersthat - the government be required to nego-tiate," she said .Forche said that when she was in El

Salvador she witnessed brutality, oppres-sion of the peasants and government cor-ruption .She lectured to about 120 people gath-

ered in the St . Francis Auditorium in anevent sponsored by the Santa Fe Councilfor the Arts and the Santa Fe chapter ofClergy and Laity Concerned.Her hour-long lecture was part of Cen-

tral America Week, a nation-wide obser-vancewhich began Friday .Forche said the major problem in El

Salvador, which is locked in a bitter civilwar, is that the corrupt government is runby a small military clique .

The current struggle has cost the livesof-at least 40,000 civilians caught in themiddle between. , right-wing militarygroups and guerrillas, she said .A few years ago, the Salvadoran officer

corps numbered only about 5,000, out of anational population of about 5 million.However, most presidents elected in the

past 50 years have been backed by themilitary ."You need to understand that it is not

the individual persons who are in office orwho are in authority who run El Salvador,it is the system which runs the country,"Forche said .A military background and attitude is

instilled in El Salvador's ruling classfrom early childhood, she said. After at-

tending military. academies where earlyties and loyalties are established, El Sal-vadoran officers mayserve for 20 years ina carefully controlled and developed sys-tem before receiving their chance at pow-er.Forche claimed that for the past 20

years, military leaders have been siphon-ing off both economic and military aid fortheir own use. They also have developedan -extensive system of corruption de-pendent on continued U.S . aid, shecharged."I've talked with many different Amer-

ican advisers in Salvador, and many ofthem have the attitude about the govern-ment that they may be bastards , but atleast they are our bastards," she said .

If you're one-of millions whohavecome to regard television as the mosttrivial of media, Woody Vasulka mayopen your eyes to its creative potencyin the hands of a true craftsman.His new video opera, TheCommis-

sion, received its world preMteIMnesday at theC . G. Rein Galleryin a benefit performance for the ToneRoads West musicand poetry festi-val.The opera, a true collaborative cre-

ation, recounts the macabre story ofPaganini in his last years. The epi-logue tells of 30 subsequent years be-fore his shabbily embalmed bodyreaches its final resting place.The textual music of Paganini and

Berlioz was created andperformedby Ernest Gusella andRobert Ashley,respectively .Our physical revulsion toward these

gruesomedetails is mitigated by thehumorof Ashley's marvelously irre-verent recreation of Berlioz, which hesomewhere betweenSam Ervin andBob Dylan. Gusella's Paganini is atortured, Christ-like figure whocom-municates through his 1D-year-oldson, placidly portrayed by BenHarris .TheCommission is a powerful, ex-

quisitely crafted work. I doubt thatmany of Wednesday's audience of 125will soon forget Paganini's bizarretale, and some of us are hungry toknow more.

El Salvador strifefocus of poet's lecturePoet Carolyn Forche will give a freelecture at 7 p.m . today on the currentbloodshed in El Salvador .

Carolyn Forche

Her talk in the St. Francis Auditoriumof the Museum of Fine Arts is beingco-sponsored by the Santa Fe Councilof the Arts' Tone Roads West festivaland by Clergy and Laity Concerned .

Forche's latest book of poems, TheCountry Between Us, grew from herexperiences as a journalist andhuman rights observer in ElSalvador . She recently returned froma month in Central America.

On Saturday, Forche will lecture onthe work of Salvadoran poet ClaribelAlegria at 3 p,m. and will read fromher own work at 7 p .m ., also in St .Francis Auditorium .For information, call the ArtsCouncil at 988-1878 .

Festival celebrates poetry, new musicP By JON BOWMAN

The New Mexican StaffWry is seldom viewed asapublic art .We go out to concerts,

films, playsand danceperformances,but usually stay at home. next to ablazing fireplace and abottle of wine,when we're in the mood for poetry .Poetsthemselves are seen as kin to

hermits . Some may scribble theirlines at the local bistro, but in the pop-ular view, the best poets work by can-dlelight in the weehours of the night,closed off to the world .Tone Roads West, sponsored bythe

Santa Fe Council for the Arts, proba-bly won't change all our ingrainedstereotypes about poets and theirwritings .

It promises . however, to be themost visible . public celebration of po-etry yet to be seen in this town .The four-day festival, which opens

Thursday, also will expose SantaFeans to a wide rangeof new Ameri-canmusic, the kind often said to be onthe cutting edge .The seed for ToneRoads Westwas

sown a year ago when five regionalpoets and Santa Fecomposer PeterGarland joined together for a publicpresentation at St . John's College .

Calling themselves "the VerseSquad," the poets found they hadmuch in common withGarland.Through the collaboration, their poet-ry and music gained a new, shareddimension - and a wider audiencethan efthermight receive alone.ToneRoads West also will be a joint

venture. but on a much grander scale.Twelve New Mexico poets and two

prominent poets from out-of-state -Carolyn Forche and Jackson MacLow - will participate in the festival,based at St . Francis Auditorium .Composers will have strong repre-

sent ation, performingtheir ownworks in nightly concerts . In somecases, poets and composerswill sharethe stage, attempting to meldwordswith music .Suzanne Jamison, executive direc-

tor of the Arts Council, said the festt-vai wilt be the fIrst in Santa Fe - andone of only a handful anywhere - tocumbine the two art forma.

' , It just seemed to meit was time todo something like this - to put thedifferent people together and see howthey develop ." she said .Another goal of the festival, she

said, is to allow area poets and com-posers to rub elbows with more wide-ly-known artists from outside New:lfexico."When you bring in people from out

of town, that's a valid thing todo."she said . "But when you bring peoplein, there needs to be a way for them tointeract with the people m the town,so when they leave, they leave some-th in g beh ind . "Although Tone Roads West will ex-

plore the links between poetry andmusic, development of the festivalprogram was entrusted totwo people,representing eachof the featured artforma.2

. FridayLMaC : .11 ; 1983

'~b' Lrnn~ ~~ww

11fusfc coordinaforPeter Garland, left, withcomposer doseph Weber

Garland served as music coordina-tor and Arthur Sze organized the poet-ry events.Garland said the festival - with

five concerts planned over its four-day span- will offer "the biggestamountof contemporary music I'veever seep in a small spaceof time InNew Mexico ."The emphasis willhe on non-com-

mercial and experimental music, In-cluding two nights of original worksby Garland andSanta Fe composerJoseph Weber. In addition, concertswill be given by composer/violinistMalcoim Goldsteinof Vermont. PoetMac Low and San Francisco-basedperformance artists Charles Amir-khantan and Carol Law . (see accom-panying schedule for times andplaces) .

Garland described Goldstein as"one of the premier violinists of theavant-garde" and a champion of im-provisational playing techniques .Goldstein's first appearance at the

festival will be next Friday, March 18,whenhe will Perform with Mac Low, aclose friend .Goldstein's majorconcert will be

next Saturday, March 19. At thattime, he will direct an ensemble ofSanta Fe musicians fn the worldpremiere of his TheSeasons : VermontlWinter Vermont/Spring, whichhe has been workingon for more thana decade . He also will perform hissolo piece Marin'3Song, Illuminatedand a piece called Soundings.

" It's going to be a very ambitiousprogram," Garland said .Amirkhantan and Law will closeout

the festival next Sunday, March 20,with a performance of their work, Hy-potbetfcal womems.Garland said the performance will

Involve not only live music, buttheuse of multiple projectors, tapedsounds and other media . "It sort ofcrosses over the realm into perform-ance the..ter," hesaid.Sze said the poetry programswill

be equally eclectic, bringing togetherpoets from different ethnic back-grounds with varying styles and con-corms."I think there's a lot of Strong poet-

ry going on and it's muiti-cuitural,"he said . "My overall goal was to drawon the talents in New Mexico . Ratherthan thinkofthem as individual voic-es. I wanted toplay different writersagainst each other . I think there'smore music In that ."The festival will openThursday

with a poetry reading, involving Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, John Brandl, JoyHarjo and Sze, all working in NewMexico.Twoother readings w III feature po-

ets from the state . On Saturday,March 19, FloyceAlex ander, JimmySantiago, Slmon Ortiz and Luci Ta-pahonso will join together . Thefollow-ing day, acollective reading will begiven by Carol Cellucci. Harold Little-bird. LeoRomero and NathanielTorn-

IL"Most of us know each other," Sze'Said . "I tried to select the best as well

as a few voices I think deserve to beheard ."The visiting poets participating in

the festival -Mac Clow and Forche- will make several appearances.

Forche, who formerly Ilved in Taos,has traveled extensively In EI Salva-dor as a journalist and human rightsadvocate . Her book ofpoems, TheCountry Between Us, whose imageryis rooted in Forche's Salvadoranex-

periences, was the Lamant Selectionof the Academy of American Poets in1981 .Mac Low has been a poetic innova-

tor for years, experimenting with thechance use of language, distortion ofsyntax and blending of poetry withother art forms, including dance, mu-sic and painting . His major appear-ance here will be h Is collaborationwith musician Goldstein.

Cosimo Corsano as The Mortician in Woody Vasulka's video work

Experimental video operato be unveiled at benefItThe commission, a

to ng-awa ited vi deaoperabySanta Fean WoodyVasulka, will receive itspremiere Wednesday asa benefit for ToneRoadsWest . the poetry and newmusic festivai .The video workwill be

shown at 7 :39 p.m . atC . G . ReinGallery . 122W . San Francisco. Tick-ets are S8 .f asulka will be joined

by poets and composersparticipating in ToneRoads West attheshow-.ng . Afterwards . refresh-ments will be served .neCommission is an

experimental work, tn-spired by a historic eventinvolving the Frenchcomposer Hector Berlioxand N ic colo Pagamn i -.9uperstar vioIintst of the19th Century .As the video opera un-

folds . a fraudulent com-mission is given to the

On the coverThis week's coverwas designed by.Mona Kay

using a Marcis Mtkuiak photograph of BradfordSmith's sculplure/ set for Woody Vasulka's videowork The Commission .

then-unknown Berlioz- Itis supposedly from Pa-ganini, whom the com-poser adores . In fact . thewhole deal is a publicitystuntstaged by Berliox'spublisher .The Commission

delves into Paganini'sextraordInarv life andbizarre character . Thework is not strictly a his-torical narrative, howev-er . At times, it takes adecisive turn toward theabstract .The cast includes Local

and national figures .Composer Robert Ashleyportrays Berliox, whilev idea artist ErnestGusella appears as Pa-

ganini and Ben Harris ashis son . Cosimo Corsanoplays the Mortician andAndreaHarris is heardas The Voice .The Czechoslovakian-

barn Vasulka and hiswife and co-worker, Stel-na, produced TheCorn -mission with funding as-sistance from the Na-tional Endowment forthe Arts and New MexicoArts Division .The two are pinnet rs

in experimental video . Inthe 1960s, they foundedThe Kitchen in NewYork, one at the coun-try's most widely knownalternative performingspaces-

Four-dad ToneRoadsci firstfor Sanra FeHere is. the schedule of events for

ToneRoads West, Santa Fe's firstjoint poetry and new music festi-val . All events will take place at theSt . Francis Auditorium, exceptwhere noted. Tlekets are $4 for po-etry readings, $5 for concerts and$'d for Ieetures, available at thedoor. Series passes also may bepurchased for $30by calling theSanta Fe Council of the Arts, 988-18TS .

Wednesday, March 16Woody Vasulka's video operaThe Commission will receiveitspremiere in a benefit for thefestival, 7 : 30p.m ., at C. GRehtGallery, 122W. San Francisco .Admission $S.

Thursday, March 17Poetryreading - featuringMel-Mel Berssenbrugge, JohnBrandi, Joy Harjo andArthurSae, 7p.m .Newmusic concert - WorksbySantaFean Joseph Weber,includingLabyrinth and anuntitled piece forsolopiano andthepremiere ofFantasies,drgana, Dances and Hymns fortheSt. Francisorgan.

Friday, March18Lecture - on HISalvadorbypoet andhuman rightsadvocate Carolyn Forche. Co-sponsored by Clergyand LaityConcerned. 7p.m . Free .Performance - Poet JacksonMacLow accompaniedbyviolinstMalcolm Goldstein,8:15p.m .New music concert - WorksbySanta Fean Peter Garland,including Three Dawns, TheSongs ofQuetaalcoatl andMatachinDances, 9:30p.m .

Saturday, March 18Poetry reading- featuringFloyce Alexander, JimmySantiago Baca . Simon Ortiz andLuci Tapahonso, I p.m .

Lecture: Caroyln Forche willdiscuss the work ofSalvadorean poet CaribelAlegria, 3p.m ., to the MuseumofFineArts ConferenceRoom .Poetryreading- featuringCarolyn Forche andJacksonMac Low, 7p.m .Newmusic concert --MalcolmGoldstein with ensembleperforming The Seasons:

err"M.. .-Jackson MacLaw

VermontlWinter, VermontlSpring, Soundings andMarin'sSong, Illuminated .

Sunday, March20Discussion - a poetry andnewmusic collaboration, withMalcolm Goldstein andJackson MacLow, 2p.m ., inthe Museum ofFine ArtsConference Room .Poetryreading- featuringCarol Cellucci, HaroldLittlebird, Leo Romero andNathaniel Tarn . 6p.m .:Yew musicperformance -CharlesAmirkhanian andCarolLa wwill do HypotheticalMoments, aperformance pieceusing tape, music, text,projectors and an ensemble,8:30p.m .

Violinistlcomposer Malcolm Goldstein

.- PASATTEMRQ

3 -

" C~PAP 11

Arts-Entertainment

Sculpture/Set in 'The Commission'

Ucolm Goldstein To Lead Musical Ensemble, Some Say He's `Reinvented Violin Playing

`Tone Roads' Lead To Creative EncounterTone Roads West : poetry and Yew Haws, will TsM plus at St.FYancis Audimrinnt in Santa Fe. March 17-21.'rlcketsm indlvWualevents are available t it the Santa Fe Council for tin Arm,lpWa&Wngtnn Ave . A 5H series ticket is also available.

By K.C. COMPTONJournal Arts Writer

Friday, March 11, 1983

For four days this month, poets and musicalpioneers will converge in Santa Fe for what promisesto be a fascinating, if not necessarily sensible,coavocat2on of the musical and literary."Tone Roads West: Poetry and New Music,"

sponsored by the Santa Fe Council for the Arts, willfeature poetry reading, new music concerts, lecruresby poets and musicians of national and internationalreputation and the world premiere of a video opera .The festival will open with the premiere of "The

Commission," a video opera by Santa FwCzech videoartist Woody Vasulka. The opera, with sets designedby sculptor Bradford Smith and camera work bySteina Vasulka, is about a commission Hector Berliozreceived to compose a work for Paganim, and whichlater turned out to be fraudulent. (Did Verdi beginthus? Does this make sense? Does it need to?Remember, this is opera .)The fare being offered is a Duke's mixture of the

middle and highbrow, with a heavy '-eating towardthe avant-garde, If Rudyard I{ipling is still yourravonte poet and Lawrence Welk is your idea of theconsummate musician, you may be in for quite anadventure . In fact, even if e e . cummings and Bartokare more your stile, you -nay be in for a challenge .

-44117. 1

T Then Copland's-music firstcame out, the musicians looked at itand said it was impossible . Now,With thousands of performancesbehind them, it seems quiteacceptable."

Take for instance violiaisvcomposer MalcolmGoldstein. He will direct an ensemble of Santa Femusicians in the world premiere of his"The Seasons :Vermont(Winter VermouvSpring."An article in The ViUege Voice stated that Gold-

stein had "reinvented violin playing ." Whether that istrue is openmdebate . Aquick look at the scores to hismusic leaves little doubt that he has, at least, added anew wrinkle or two to the an of writing musicalscores .His scores indicate rhythmic patterns, textures and

duration through a variety of symbols, such as a mapof the rivers in his native Vermont which serves asthe musical score to "The Seasons ."Music coordinator Peter Garland is a composer of

experimental music himself and he fairly bristles atthe suggestion that such work may be intellectual

noodling . It is different, he will admit. But so, a fewyears ago, was Aaroa Copland's music ."One of the reasons it is hard to understand and

hard to play is that there is no performancetradition," Garland said. "When Copland'smusic firstcame Gut, the musician looked at it and said it wasimpossible . Now, with thousands of performancesbehind them, it seems quite acceptable ."Experimentation seems to have less emphasis on

the poetry side of the program- poetry coordinatorArthur Sze, himself the recipient o ¬ several awardsand fellowships, said he selected 12 New Mexicanpoets to read their work. The group includes NativeAmericans Simon Ortiz, Joy Harjo, Lori Tapahonsoand Harold Littlebird : Chicano writers Lea Romeroand Jimmy Santiago Baca ; Chinese-American poetsSze and Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge ; as well as culturallyunidentified Nathaniel Tarn, Carol Cellucci, JohnBrandi and Royce Alexander."Because we have a strong writing community

here, I tried to select people who represent thismulti-cultural group," Sze said. "One of the things Iwanted to do, because most of us are well known tolocal audiences and do a lot of solo readings, was topresent a group of different voices- So, instead ofhaving one poet read I am putting four together atone time and we'll play the voices against eachother ."

Political poet Carolyn Forchd is one of twonattorally acclaimed poets who will participate in theseries . She has received fellowships from the Gug-

Continued on C4

`Tone Roads' . Lead

To~ Creative Encounter i

Continued From C-1

g"im Foundation and the National Endowment forthe Arts and has published two award-winning booksof poetry, "Gathering the Tribes" and "The CountryBetween Us."

Forchd has travelled extensively in El Salvador as ajournalist and will give a talk about huruan.rights. Shewill also lecture on the work of Claribel Alegria, aSalvadoran poet, and read her poetry .

"Carolyn Forchd is a good strong voice," Sze said. "Ithink she will adda lot of dimension to this. The otherguest poet, Jackson Macl-ow, is a composer andperfermanceartist aswell as a writer. He was pivotalin this event because we aren't just doing a poetryfestival or a music festival .

"VW~ are going to have musicmixedwith poetry andperformance, and then people who are interested inpoetry might have a chance to hear new music andvice versa. And since MacLow has been doing theseconcert and poetry readings for years, I feel he is sortof a :bridge between the two."

MLLow, an experimental poet, is the only avant-garde writer among the poets. The musicians andcomposers, however, more than make up for thepoets' traditionalism.

"My idea in selecting the composers and musiciansfor `Tone RoadsWest' wasto bring togetherhalf localand, half out-of-town artists to showcase the strongemerging local talent with recognized artists fromother parts of the country. Part of my criteria was totry :and select people who crossed the boundariesbeMeen literature and music," Garland said .

`IFor instance, Charles Amirkhanian uses textmaterial almost exclusively for his musical material .He works with tape recorders and instead of playingnotes on instruments, he uses bits of text and wordsto make music. Very much in the tradition ofGertrude Stein and some of the French Dadaists."Amirkhanian and his wife Carol Law, a visual artist,work in a relatively new intermedia field known asperformance art. They combine music, slide projec-tors; lighting, tape recorders and sundry other

materials into what the festival organizers say is "aclosing night spectacle."

~~ REPORTING THE ARTS"Ar zaAn Instrument of Infinite Coin legitYO

N

By KE.N AUSUBEL

Editor's note Santa Fe resident WoodyVasuika is a nationally known video artistand, along with his wife and co-workerSteins, is a pioneer in the-field of video artand computer video. Born in Brno .Czechoslovakia, in 1937. Vasulka studiedmewl technology and hydraulic mechanicstit the irate school of industrial engineering-Then he entered the film-making program atthe prestigious Academy of performing;;ts in Praitue where he'orKan ".o produceind :inert -shortin iyti5 he emigrated-

:hr L- ni "ed 7T aces and worked in Newt- irk t-aL

-reriance film editor for:everai rears .

In 1967 he began co experiment with elec-:runnc sounds, stroboscopic lights and videO-'n f3 7 t he was appointed associate pro-

-"s0r~in the Center for Media Studies at the~Vite L- niversity 1i f tiew York at Buffalo- Atthus time he began his experiments withcomputer . generated and computer-manipu-lated video images, which resulted in theconstruction of what has now becomeknown as The Valsulka Imaging System.On Wednesdav. March 18, Vasulka's new-

est work, a video opera titled "The COmmis-sian," will receive its world premiere at theC. G, Rein Gallery in Santa Fe . Based looselyon the life of tiiccolo Paganini- the legen-dary 19thcenturv violinist, "The Commis-sion' marks the first time that Valaulka hasapphed his video-imaging techniques to anarrative structure .

the following interview was excerptedfrom a longer one conducted by Sans Fe":ideo-maker. Ken Ausubel-AusubeL «ere you always interested inmachines .'Vasulka: ]iy father had a workshop andwas a metal worker . 1-grew up during thewar in Cxarhoslovakia . We lived acrose fromn airtipld- NIv first interest as a kid was to

'.eke machines apart . I was lucky living closeto the airport because I could take the mostcomplicated machines of that era-the Ger-man "''ighwr planes-and play with them .Jfy- youth was spent in these graveyards of

You could find everything there 1airplanes .that would drive your fantasy crazy- Europe

A scene from 'The Commission' ; Vasuika limatk 'An image is an energy system'was a huge iurtkyard after the war; youcould find everything from human fingers

I was a product-were concentrating on the

systems, We produced numerous tapes that-o weapons in thedump- As kids, we roamed

opposite of experimentation- We paid Fro at.

included this aspect of video-what somethrough it . This basically set the scene.

tendon to what's called the "medium-hams

people call "abstract video." But that is just

Eventually I began to reaure-here let me

of information," or undertaking a formal in-

a transposition of one aesthetic term from

paraphrase Korean video-maker Yam June

vestigation of a medium for its own sake-

abstract painting-to this electronic environ-

Faik-chat if you make a simple tool . you'll

We were interested in what ideologies are

mentuse it for a while like a child uses a simple

interested in, which is larger mythological

Right from-the beginning, we felt chal-

'.ov, --inen ".hIOR it away . because you will

or narrative systems. As a group in Film

lenged by television as a perception system..sutKrow the challenge . But :f you can make

school. we followed the metaphorical ap-

We weren't interested in aesthetic results,tnai :oat is nnfiniceiy complicated . is will

proach . Maybe you could disguise political

Yousee, film travels at the rate of 24 frames

!,ascinafe vou fur the rest of your lifs . What

opposition through metaphor .

per second, but with video you have 60

1've been trying ",o do is to invent tools that

Butwhen f came to the States in 1965, 1

'fields' her second. Video encodes many

-oncain more m_vscerv than I could possibly

disovered there was a whole generation of

more changes than film, and you can buildimagine

that s what characterizes our her-

practicing film-makers called the structural-

devices that can work with a single field,cer :~olss-this ability To be inspired by the

ists who paid close attention to what the

Ausubel:

What

was your

role

in

the

tooi rather than aping served by nt .

European avant-garde of the '20a did- But

development of computer videe?

Ausubel: How did you get into video'

these artists extended much further the idea

Vasulka In the early '70s, we happened to

Vasulka: That's a long story . After the war,

about the material o£ the medium itself: film

be with a group of people who were working

the ari scene its Czechoslovakia was doming .

surface,

morion,

elements-

information

with video, and they modest effort w bring

rid

by

socialist

realism

[the

official

within

a

frame.

Suddenly,

I

came

to

video and the computer into a union, WeCiimmunist Party aesthetic that forbade any

recognise the materiality of the medium-

had only- one way of doing it . We built ustvie of arc or :icuracure that deviated from

the medium has its own truth .

All

this

separate small computer next to the general_

:trict realism with Marxist overtones] . Anv

prepared me for video.

purpose computer, and we made a time link

-lotion of any kind of experimentation with

Then, in 1963 . I began to experiment with

between them, in which they communicated

media was :ooked an eke a notion of the

video in Now York- About that time is hit

synchronously- even that is not an in-s ani-garde of ,he =09 . Though the avanc-

me that This is the medium in which I

novative idea, because its natural to These;aide ni -hat time had been leftist, by the

wanted to work . I was interested in ".his

technology systems to copuiate-cire I grew .ip- "he ieft was already

metaphysical concept-that an image is an

v4'e defined a basic set of rules, and our

bankrupt . It -.yes asscxriated .with the most

energy system-

images were one of the first manifestations

-eaccionary Lnougnt.s andsuppressed experi-

Ausubei: Whatwas thenature of vourearly

of what is caned "video art." Our contribu .aentation .

I'm

'ailing about

'. .he Czech

work with video'

non, really, was to define the computer and+ituation .

Vasuika; The nature of our early work was

videoin the context of art . Even now there isate. as a generation aowine up in a film

non-figurative or non-representational- We

soil a debate on whether there i3 . in fact,environment-~:ke the film s,hrxmlofR+Wotu - 'kenerated"=Images

t~irough'' efteti"S~`- r.ornput" art. SometL$~"4Krt,~tOi,

:~°°booed °n Page 2d!

m

wa

amazing video images are not the art- minitiated but those that are mathematicallyor numerically initiated . Then I have to ask smyself: Which oneis the radical image?^lotwhich one is the successful image?Auaubel: Some of your work appears to be =°looking into areas of human perception andcognition .

WVasulka: Yes. For instance, we found wecould change The color of each video "field"and create "layers," or what we called"perceptually induced mixes." But there areother perceptual systems and cognitive in-terpretations- We discovered that a par.titular event, like computer feedback . cor-relates preceding and succeeding events . 7owhen you end One image with another com-pletely different image, you find out thatyour vigion interprets them logically . Arcuaily, the images are cognitiveiv inter-preted .

It's notoniv discovering the materiality ofvideoor itscodes chat challenges us, but of isalso just a pleasure to see these images andthe changes in them .

-Ausubelt You're most often called a videoartist. LJo you accept that term?Vasulka. N0- it's juat a term through whichyou make a living. A long time ago. wedidn't need that term at all . "Video artist" ,already indicates a set of limitations . It'sbasically a marketing scheme . "Video art",was coined by the galleries because they hadto handle the product, but it really doesn'tmean much at all .

Personally, it's not my ambition to be avideo artist . I'm just very grateful that Icould find some medium in which I could bea practical philosopher . The other labels fmpragmatic enough to use because- they raisemoney .Ausubel: What do you mean by "practicalphilosopher"VasWka; The whole idea of aesthetic termslike structuralism and philosophical termslike time and energy were rather abstract mme . Video is a medium that exposes you to aspecific problem of tune and energy- Slid,deudy, energy becomes a certain set ofbrightnesses and time becomes a location ofthat particular energy on the time raster,which is a frame in video. Suddenly, theabstract concept of light or location of lightin time becomes extraordinariiv practicable .Through the medium I could enter a prac-tical philosophy of time and energy as ameans of expression-Ausubel: Then do you consider yourself anartes t?Vasulka: In a way I don't think so. In myOwn personal terms. it's not my ambition . Inthe process of experimentation . there aretworesults! Either it succeeds or it fails- Butarc must succeed : theres no 'failed art." Idont want to live with the necessity of beingsuccessful. and [hats what art is .Aiuiubel : So experimentation is integral toyour work?VasWka: Yes- Yet I respect art, and all thevalues of my life have somethingto do withthat . If I would psychoanalyze myself, in-deed, I would probably find that at thebottom

I have some kind of desire to produceart. Yet consciously, I'm trying to .waik the

` furthest circle around art.People sometimes call my work 'technolo-

gy determinist," that is, no longeraesthetically driven- What I am driven by isa curiosity about the medium . I do want wtrod out if there are anv codes or patternsthat video can create that sometimes borderon art, but this is definitely not a part of anaesthetic system .Ausubel: How did you come to create yourvideo opera, "The Commission"

TONE ROADS WESTSanta Fe as a year-round music center is

growing by the proverbial leaps andbounds . What is most interesting and en-couraging about this development is thatmuch of the activity is composed, per-formed, and organized by local musicians,in the teeth, as it were, of Santa Fe's oftenspectacular but seldom indigenous Operaand Chamber :Music Festivai .Most active of the hometown types is the

indeiatigable Peter Garland, who at 30 isnot only a composer and publisher ofSoundings, one of the most useful anddistinguished music journals in the world,

Infinite Complexity(Continued from Page 19)

Vasulka : I wanted to work with the largersymbolic narrative systems that are in-tegrated into general cultural archetypes,like opera . I asked myself; Is there an appli-cation of those primary video codes-whichyou arrive at by experimentation, investiga-tion or just pure visual joy-that you canpossibly apply to this more establishedgenre? This opera was a rather formal exer-cise for me in . which I took certain imagingstructures from past work and transposedthem into a narrative context.Still, in the work Tm not really sayinganything through thought or conscious,spoken ideas; the meaning of . the opera isstill communicated in the sense of themedium, . I don't like thought.produced

meaning ; I prefer an image-producedparadox that subverts thought. Perhaps theopera will work, perhaps not . That isanother question . It was done as art experi.ment.Ausubel: Much ofyour work in the past hasbeen done in the academic worlds in theEast . Now that you've come to Santa Fe, doyou see your work changing?Valsulka: As long as I was . involved in dis-covering or summarizing the phenomeno-logy of electronic imaging, I was able toteach. In many ways I was excited aboutteaching when I was discovering thosecodes- But when I moved on to application,innovation ceased and my involvement withmy work became more personal, This workcould not be communicated with such excite-meet because it became doubtful and inse-cure . When you start working, talking ortrying to impose on someone else your own

woody Vasulka's video opera, "Thecreative dilemma, it's a brutal and oppres-

Commission," will be presented as asive act . I was totally absorbed in what I was

benefit for Tone Roads West, a four daydoing.

festival of poetry and new music, at theIn general, I don't like to work . I don't

C.G. Rein Gallery (122 W, San Francisco)want to get involved in any job. If I can

at 7:30 pin, on Wednesday, March 16.avoid a job, I will, Not being involved in a

Tickets, which are $8, can be reservedjob is very natural where I come from. Here - yb~eallinq.988-1878.-

Continued on page 22

March, 1983 21

NEWS continued :

in America there is a moral code that says ajob means dignity . The idea of being lazyhere is devasting. Where I come from, mostof the fairy tales are about lazy people . A lotof the state of well-being is based on beingextraordinarily lazy : To be able to sitwithout guilt and to stare into the sunsetand just be heated by the sun . That's permit.ted . Here, of course, one gets under the spellof the rush of society. In the early yearshere, I submitted myself to that wonderfulrush . Then I found out that it's not very in-teresting. So I'm trying to get away, as muchas possible . from phone calls-even fromgetting up from bed .Ausubel : Would you agree, then, with PaulLa Fargue, Karl Marx's son-in-law, that peo-ple have the right to be lazy?Vasulka: The whole idea about activity

and morality is very much a Westernthought: There's no relief for people accusedof being lazy: In my eyes, they are heroes .They submit themselves to the deepestpossible torture . Any activity takes you intothe area of optimism again. That's wiry peo-ple in the West like to travel or develop allsorts of activities ; they hope to preventdeath, improve finances, become mentallymore healthy . True, its profitable to be ac-tive, but the opposite is much more challeng-ing.Coming to Santa Fe is a retirement from

my duties . I found out that this isn't a com-munity to compete in, but one to con-template . It's a privilege to be able to con-template your life, but it's more difficult tocontemplate than simply produce .

Sze, Carolyn Forche, Jimmy SantiagoBaca, Simon Ortiz . Caroi Cellucc :, HaroldLittlebird . Leo Romero, and others .In an unrelated musical offering,California composer Lou Harrison willbring his puppet opera, Ric7ara Whit-"Ington, to Santa Fe's Armory for the Artson March 10 and 11 . Harrison was doinupuppet opera when the Muppets were on-ly a gleam in Jim Henson's eye . Garlandhimself has written a puppet opera aboutthe conquest of Mexico . which he hopes topresent in 1984

In April, iashionacie composer PhilipGlass will perform with an eight-memberensemble at Santa Fe's Lensic Theater onApril 14 .

but also organizer of Tone Roads West :Poetry and New Music, taking place inSanta Fe from March 16 to 20 ;see theARThnes Calendar for details) .The music programs will be highlighted

by the benefit world premiere of The Com .mission, a video opera by Santa Fe'sWoody Vasulka . From the Diary of anEdgewalker, Labyrinth, and a worldpremiere to be announced, all by :opalcomposer Joseph Weber . will he perform-ed, as will compositions oy JacksonMacLow and Garland . and a multi-mediaperformance by Charles Amirrchanian andCarol Law .Other Tone Roads West events include

poetry readings by Mei-Met Berrsen-brugge, John Brandi, Joy Harjo, Arthur

A five-day festival to open in Santa FeBy ti'ILIAAM 1)UNNI,NGMonitor (-'orresponden1The voices of music and

tile music of voices ])lendthis week in an unusual andarubitious undertaking spon-sored by the Santa Fe Council for the Arts in the capital,blending in its ic and poetry.

'l'one Itoads West is the ti-tie of this intense five-dayfestival that begins 14'ednes .

to

clay and continues through0

Sunday . F'or series ticket in-formation, you can call 988-18'1t; . Tickets to single eventsare available at the door nn .l y . Except Jay ti le benefitofwning event Wednesday,all performances are in St .f'r:tneis Auditorium at theFine Arts Museum in SantaFe .Tune Roads West opens al

; :3oll.ln, Wednesday scIth afir emicrc of a new form :vufeu opera II will be at the[' .G Rein Gallery, 122 WestSan Francisco, 1'fte work istltleifanct was produced by Woodyti'asulka, the Czech-borzlvideo producer . 1'asulkassho works with his wifeSleina, prefers the term " ex -

to "video ar-tist," l"otutg that he is notalways successful 'Pluslends a certain air of expec,ration to Wednesday's

premiere . The plot revolvesaround an incident in tilelives of composer HectorBerlioz and violinist NicoloPaganini Telephone litegallery to reserve a seal .Thursday and Friday's

pregralns begin al 7 p .m . atSt . V'raneis Auditorium . APoetry reading by Mei-NleiBerssenbrugge, John Bran.di, Joy flario and ArthurSze, poetry coordinator forthe eoenls, begin tileThursday events . At 9 :3f1p .m ., composer JosephWeber will perform his riewmusic, including a premiereHe is supposed to per¬urtn ontile auditorium's McNaryorgan .Friday's upenitlg event al

7 p,ni .is a free talk by poetCarolyn Furche about t;lSalvador . Forche is ahuman-rights advocatewhose recent Iwok, . .Thei;ountry between ifs" is based on tier i ll paSidvador . At 8 l ;i ll .ltt , poolJackson

A] ac 1,0W

alt(]violltllst Malcallll Goldsteinstart the new music, to hefollowed by Santa Fe com-poser and publisher PeterGarland Ills music is drawnfrom Mexican and NativeAmerican sources, andsometimes

reminds

l lielistener of Carlos Chavez .

We may expect to hearMaIe01111 Goldstein in the"Matachin Dances" whichGarland dedicated to hitn .On Saturday, a poetry

reading at I p.m . featuresFloyce Alexander, JimmySantiago Baca, Simon Urtiz,and Luci Tapahonso. At 3p .m ., Carolyn Forcbediscusses Salvadorean poetClarihel Alegria in theNlueseum's conferenceroom . Then at 7 p'tn y sheand Jackson NIacLow ~'eadsome of their poetry -in llteauditorium . Goldsteinpresents music in a 9:31 .1 p.m .concert.On Sunday, last clay of the

festival, Goldstein andAlacl,ow talk about the fu-sion of poetry and music illthe conference room at 2p .n l . Local Poets CarolCellucci, Harold Litllebird,Leo Romero and NathanielTarn read at ti p,lll . in theaudiloriurn, fOllowed at 8 :30pill- by Charles Anlirkha-nian and carol Law with amulti-media new musicwork, "IlypothelicalMoments "Sonte of tile big names in

current lte%4 ruusic, likeAmirkhanian and Goldstein,will he joining prominentlocals like Garland andWeber for [tie music~half of

this event . Poets like Forclleand Macl,ow as well as somebright names on the localscene, promise to make thisa heady blend of voice andvel'se . It's good to see thefestival idea taking hold inSanta Fe, and to see the film,music and other eventsspreading nut in the calen-dar,For a previe%% of sortie of

the sttusis ., you nt,ly want toget the recod, "t.iarfand :Nlalacftbi t) ;inces,^ a recordby Ronald Erickson, JohnTenney, violins ; peterGarland, gourd rattles, onthe Cold Blue label, EGThese short dances . about

18 minutes total for the suiteof six dances, based nn theancient Native American in-dialt lraditiolt, are a subjec-tive sort of z-ecretuion of tile(radii iun;d sound . Except fortwo of Iheni, No 4, the Danceof Death, svriIIell in 1)1ett1oryof John Lennon . anti .\'o . a.Curcovi, the Night Bird, (heyhave vigorous dancingrhyt]tin that makes themcome alive in tile ear .

I found myself !linkingMore of Car1)5 Chavez andhlexican ludians than theNew Nlcxicn variety, though!here is a feeling of homehere, too. The performancemight be more sprightlv .

and perhaps will he repeatedsomeday . Garland's musicdeserves more exposure tothe listening public . ']'hisrecording was matte June 9,1981 at a San Francisco newIll usic festival .

Cold Bluc Records of LOSAngeles pc oducc s a cleansound in stereo, butpackages tile records in asoft package that is hard todust-proof, a plastic cover orinnerjackei is a worthwhileidea . You can get copies ofthis record from the cont~Poser at his SoundingsPress, 948 Canyon Road, orprobably during the ToneRoads West leslival in SantaFe .

Tone Roads a t times confusing,always -interesting

By RICHARDBARRETT

1(}

ForTheNewMexicanTone Roads West, a

festival dedicated to po-etry and music, present-ed four days and nightsof contemporary worksending Sunday. Manyadjectives come to mindin trying to describe thisamalgam of mediums.But words like avant-garde, surreal, pop andfuturistic fail . Musical-ly, everything from min-imalist to 12th centuryorganum (polyphony)was represented .The works of Peter

Garland and JosephWeber, both pianists,represented the main-stream of contemporarymusic with roots in theclassical tradition. Thepresent style of this mu-sic is best described bythe word "minimal ." Ashort- motive or subjectis repeated (sometimesad nauseam) with slightchanges (variations)over an unspecified peri-od of time . This modularform can be very sue-cessful if the core sub-ject possesses energyand an intrinsic qualitysuited to this style. Ifnot, it is no more inter-esting than shoppingmall music.Weber seemed to have

the best grasp o¬ thisstyle . Wedding it to ear-ly forms of polyphonyand variation (tie has avast knowledge of his-torical musical style),he created in his work"Labyrinth," a set ofvariations with tremen-dous energy .His 1983 work for solo

organ, "Fantasias, or-gana, Dances andHymns," show a greattalent for spontaneousvariation, so commonamong Baroque organ-ists, but today it is allbut lost . His keyboardtechnique, whether pi-ano or organ, is daz-zling .

Garland's work, whileincorporating the samemodular form, is of an~uch more somberform. Lacking the tech-nical brilliance ofWeber, they possesssubtle timbres attainedby sensitive instrumen-tion. His "Songs of Quet-zalcoatl" used piano,harp and flute in a deli-cate evocation of themystique of Mexico .Poet Jackson Mac

Low performed, with in-strumental accompani-ment, a sort of epicpoem called "Instru-ments." Both voice andinstruments combinedin alliterative form, notunlike that heard in theprimate or aviary houseof a- zoo. Aggressivewords, full of innuendo,such as "cartel,""narc," and "coed,"gave this piece a humor-ous quality not unlike aMarx Brothers film .His work, some call it

"artistic anarchy,"should not be confusedwith poetic text with mu-sical accompaniment,but more a pure explora-tion of sound for Its ownsake. Instruments andvoice, losing all commonidiom, become one, nei-ther dictating to theother.Charles Amirkhanian

and Carol Law collai)o-rated in the most inter-esting of mixed ~.medi-ums. Electronic sound,words and slides joinedin surreal images, attimes frightening, attimes funny . Whetherone can call this "art" isanother matter . Thatone can call it a superb

Music review

representation of ourage is beyond doubt.A few Rorschach im-

pressions follow : "Dogof Stravinsky," aparodyof primal dog music ;"Andas," childhood ga-rage haunted houses ;"Dutiful Ducks," a sat-ire on committees ; "Hy-pothetical Moments," amacabre portrayal ofthe masses ; "Awe," aparody of astrology ;"History

of

Collage, "capsulated history ofpedantic art; "Mahoga-ny Ballpark," social al-ienation ; "Church Car,"-the monotony of life in amachine age .This festival, if at

times confusing, was al-ways interesting . Mypreconceived notions ofperformance and "art"were at times manifest-ed as prejudice, but this

is to be expected from -such radical styles andfarms.

If this festivalachieved nothing else : itwas to make one thinkand ponder our immedi-ate world. A trait con-spicuous by its absencein the 20th century .

The writer is musiccritic for The New Mexi-can.

By K.C . COMPTONJournal Arts Writer

ALBFriday, March 11, 19133

Tone Roads West : Pwtt7 aa4 Vew Slustc, wll7 take place a[ St .Francis Aodliorium to Santa Fe, Starch 17-1E . Ttckets to 1adlvldualeveata are available through the Santa Fe Council forthe Arts, 101Wasth¢tos Are- ,1 530 series ticket is also avadahk .

For four days this month, poets and musicalpioneers will converge in Santa Fe for what promisesto be a fascinating, if not necessarily sensible,convocation of the musical and literary.

'- Tone Roads Wesr Poetry and New Music,"sponsored by the Santa Fe Council for the Arts, willfeature poetry reading, new music concerts, lecturesby poets and musicians of national and internationalreputation and the world premiere of a video opera_The festival will open with the premiere of "The

Commission," a video opera by Santa Fe!!Caech videoartist Woody Vasulka. The opera, with sets designedby sculptor Bradford Smith and camera work bySteins Vasulks, is about a commission Hector aeriioxreceived to comp4)se a work fur Paganini, and whichlater turned out to be fraudulent . iDid Verdi begin.hits? Does [his make sense? Does it need to?Remember, this is opera-]The fare teeing offered is a Duke's mixture of the

middle and hrghbrow, with a heavy leaning toward-he a ":anz-garde. if Rudyard Kipting is still your=avom?e poet and Lawrence Welk is your Idea of the-onsurnmate mu5:cian, yin may be in for quite anadvenrure. :n fact . even :f e.e . c:jmmtngs and Bartokere More your Style. you :nay be in for a chatlenge-

NALrPW 1, Section Nod

Arts-Entertainment

Sculpture/Set in `The Commission'

Maleolm Goldstein To Lead Musical Ensemble ; Some Say He's `Reinvented Violin Playing'

`Tone Roads' Lead To Creative Encounter/hen Copland's music first

came out, the musicians looked at itand said it was impossible. Now,With thousands of performancesbehind them, it seems quiteacceptable."

Take for instance violitusVcomposer MalcolmGoldstein- He will direct an ensemble of Santa Femusicians in the world premiere of his "The Seasons:VetmontfWinter Vermont/Spring."An article in The Village Voice stated that Goid-

stein bad "reinvented violin pLaying." Whether that istrue is open to debate. A quick look at the scores to hismusic leaves tittle doubt that ie has, at least, added anew wrinkle or two to the art of writing musicalscores.His scores indicate rhythmic patterns, textures and

duration through a variety of symbols, such as a mapof the rivers to his native Vermont which serves asthe musical score to "The Seasons-"?Music Coordinator Peter Gariand is a composer of

expenmentai music himself and he fairly bristles atthe suggestion that such work may be intellectual

noodling. It is different, he will admit. But so, a fewyears ago, was Aaron Copland's music.

. ,One of the reasons it is hard to understand andhard to play is that there is no performancetradition," Garland said . "Whets Copland's music firstcame out, the musicians looked at it and said it wasimpossible. Now, with thousands of performancesbehind them, it seems quite acceptable."Exporimeutadon seems to have less emphasis on

[he poetry side of the program. Poetry coordinatorArthur Sxe, himself the recipient of several awardsand fellowships, said he selected 12 New Mexicanpoets to read their work. The group includes NativeAmericans Simon Ortiz, Joy Harjo, Luci Tapahonsoand Harold Littlebird ; Chicano writers Leo Romeroand Jimmy Santiago Sacs ; Chinese-American poetsSxe and Mei-N1ei Berssenbrugge; as well as cuIturallyunidentified Nathaniel Tarn, Carol CeJucci, JohnBrandi and Floyce Alexander."Because we have a strong writing community

here. I tried to select people who represent thismuIIi-cll[ural group," Sxe said . "One of the things fwanted to do, because most of us are welt known tolocal audiences and do a lot of solo readings . was topresent a group of different voices . So, instead ofhaving one poet read I am putting four together atone time and we'll play the voices against eachother."

Political poet Carolyn Forche is one of twonatiora_ly ac Cb~imed poets who wi11 participate :n theseriaa . She has received fellowships from the Gug-

Continued on C-i

lect of both works . This is not to deny theirvalidity as art- The tilting planes, the blurredvision, the sudden edits, and the generallymessy look (typical '60s avant-garde) are lor-mat devices that best express the inner con-tent of the Woodstock experience or Cage'sHudson River School, wild-man-of-the-woods escapism .Woody Vasulka's abstract and difficult

machine-based art is well-known for its for-malist purity of means . With The Commis-sion, Vasulka turns to narrative for the first

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an electron telescope, or watching a leopard

change its spots . The visual splendor is

brought to earth by Ashley's mundane re-

marks . If Vasulka's Commission proves any-

Ihing, it is that evil is more exciting than good .

Jack Walworth's installation, Point of Con-

sumption sets out to be a seIf-reflexive com-

mentary on the structure, content, and pro-

cess of television production . It is shown

within a simulacrum of a lower-middle-class

domestic interior-the site of most TV view-

ing- The set is a one-room apartment with a

kitchen containing shelves filled with Tang,

Jollytime Popcorn, Skinner's Raisin Bran,

and Pepsi . It is further furnished with a bed

dressed in orange sheets and a gray

crocheted spread, miscellaneous beat-up

furniture, and a TV set on a TV cart scattered

with back issues of Soap Opera Digest (a re-

ference to Walworth's earlier work on soap

operas) . This drab interior provides the set-

ting for its jewel, its raison d'e1re--an inti-

mate view of actors shooting the tape ap-

pearing on the TV set . Waiworth emphasizes

the conditions of production in voiceovers

that announce, for example, "Scene two will

be shot at another location . . . we are too

poor to finish {the tape] ." Walworth also com-

ments politically on this tape's content-the

work of independent producers . The tape as-

serts : We independent producers, solitary

workers and technicians, rather than Hol-

lywood producers, in organization for free

speech . . . TV workers for free speech in sol-

idarity with workers of the world . . ." And later,

"I just watched the organizations go crawling

back to PBS, with the independents whining

about all the money they don't make . . ." Wal-

worth's not-so-hidden message is the

triumph of non-funded producers in creating

their product. Yet, unlike Godard, the tapeof-

fers little visceral satisfaction . Instead of giv-

ing the viewer a new (or old) political art form,

we see a home movie hampered by poverty

commenting on making a home movie .

Like the Guggenheim Museum, the ar-

chitecture of Paris's Centre George Pom-

pidou competes with anything placed within it

and usually wins . In this huge industrial barn

of a space, the main floor is always jumping

with activity . Nam June Paik's mammoth

sculpture, Tricolor Video, placed in a sunken

pit in the floor, does gladiatorial combat with

the space and wins .

In his original proposal, Paik wanted 300 or

400 TV sets arranged in a five-channel,

three-color flag . The exact number of televi-

sion sets in the final version is difficult to as-

certain, but the effect is abundance. The

monitors were placed in four-part pinwheel

clusters raised on cinder blocks, forming

modules that gave the individual sets greater

presence . Scored to Stephen Beck's 1971

performance of Electronic American Flag

this panoply of ricocheting images is sim-

ply a large-scale version of Global Groove . In

a form of self-ancestor worship, Paik recy-

cles sections of that tape, Guadacana! Re-

quiem, Suite 212, and Olympic Games, as

well as work by Kit Fitzgerald and John San-

born, Shalom Gorewitz, Woody and Steina

Vasuika, and others . The subject of the im-